The End of An Era

Training Camp is officially over. It’s been some of the most growing, joy filled, and God centered weeks of my life. It’s hard to believe that it’s finished.

We spent the last few weeks of camp doing final preparations and trainings before we left for stateside ministry. We did breakout sessions, worship nights, mentor chats, and some really fun simulations. These simulations were so fun and so helpful in seeing how we were doing in preparing for ministry. Here’s a couple simulations that we did:

Kids Ministry:
We had ten minutes to prepare a lesson for kids that included a bible story, song, and some sort of activity. The catch? The kids didn’t speak english, so someone in your group had to translate, or use google translate if no one was bilingual. My team quickly threw together a rendition of parting the Red Sea that included actors from the audience and the pharaoh pharaoh song. Our squad mates acted as the kids and were instructed on how to act as a group. We stepped outside to our teaching area to be met with a very rambunctious group of “kids”. Our squad mates were running around, climbing on tables and each other’s shoulders, crying, and were even throwing real frogs they had caught at us. Once we were able to get the “kids” to sit down, they still had tons of energy and were not interested in paying attention at all. I was the translator for my group, but quickly realized that I was not very knowledgeable in bible words in Spanish. We limped along through the language barrier and random outbursts from kids, even when Moses ran away with the Israelites during our acting scene. We were able to get some really great feedback on everything, and it was good practice for me with my Spanish.

House Visit:
We sat down for what we thought was session, only to discover that it was a surprise house visit simulation. House visits are very common on the race, as it is often considered an honor to have a guest over to your home. We had 15 minutes to prepare for the visits, which included getting up to our campsite and back. When you weren’t in a house visit, you were given a list of topics to pray for: homelessness in Atlanta, revival in Palestine, etc. The cultural scenario for the house visits meant that knees and elbows had to be covered, women had to wear dresses or skirts, and all tattoos had to be covered. We quickly raced up to our tents, throwing together all sorts of mismatched outfits to meet the requirements. After praying, we headed into our house visit with a bouquet of flowers as a gift. Our scenario was a muslim woman in Jordan who had recently lost her husband. It was incredibly awkward at first as she was very hard to read and pretty unresponsive. It eventually got a bit easier and we were able to share the gospel. It was very eye opening and I learned so much about my team and about house visits from it.

A huge blessing during training was through the women’s ministry on the race, Beauty for Ashes. They hosted an event for all the girls on both X and W squad. We didn’t know anything about the event besides that we needed to dress up and bring a pen. They divided us into eight groups, each with a beauty for ashes leader. It was made up of members from both squads and from all different teams. They shared stories of powerful women from the bible and how God rewrote their stories, and we had a beautiful worship session. They then had us write down any lies that we believed about ourself. Self hatred is a struggle of mine, so I filled my paper and could have likely filled three more. We then found truth in the bible and read it over ourselves and each other to counteract those lies we believed and bring them into the light. We were given a name tag to write our new identity, things like “beloved”, “delighted in”, “clean”, or “free”. Our beauty for ashes leader then washed our feet, then prayed over and anointed us. It was an breathtakingly beautiful night, where so much was brought to light in a beautiful way, so much truth spoken, and so much healing done. I left feeling so much lighter, seen, and loved. 

During the last week of training, we were finally able to start ministry. Two days out of the week, my team worked with a ministry called Beautiful Feet. They’re an organization that helps human trafficking victims and their families recover and get back on their feet. We worked with a team of girls from the other Gap Year trip, X squad to pack food bags to distribute to families. Team Shekhinah was so sweet and we had so much fun getting to know them during the week. The other two days were spent doing street evangelism. Over and over we saw God do incredible things during our time and bless our interactions. We got to pray for some incredible people and learned so much from other believers we encountered.

We ended training camp with a worship night that was incredibly powerful and so joy filled. Jesus truly is the center of our lives and of this program, so getting to glorify and honor him through it all was such a blessing. After that, we took a Sabbath to pack for our stateside ministry trips and to rest in the Lord!

Training Camp was such an incredible experience. I’ve experienced the Lord’s goodness like never before, and he has provided over and over. I’ve gotten to love and be loved by a Christ centered community to loves me enough to call me higher when I need it, and meets me where I am. I’ve spent my days admiring the beauty of creation and getting to know the creator more. Now that I know the joy, freedom, and love that comes from walking in the will of the Lord, there’s nothing else I want, and nowhere else I’d rather be. It’s a new life, and the kind I’ll walk in forever.